Janus was bobbing, hand over hand, toward the unmarked Rebel boat. His
faceplate gleamed once as it caught the fire of the nebula.
Then, before Karrin's paling face, the silver cigar that was the other
boat suddenly threw off into space a thin leafing of curved misshapen
plates. It grew whiskers that were ray-guns and the Nova sign of the
Patrol blinked into being on its nose. The transformation took just
three seconds, and on the tick of the fourth there was a honk from
Karrin's telaudio to announce that the revealed law-boat desired
contact.
Hissing between his clamped teeth Karrin leaned over Rhiannon's wide
shoulder and speared a finger at the control board. The Patrolmen had
made the mistake of judging his boat at its space-yacht face value, but
it was far more than that.
The "yacht's" concealed atomicannons blasted the other craft into
radioactive dust. The frantically gesticulating figure of Janus was
swallowed by the glare, and when space darkened again there was only
the fused cable end, chewed off short near Karrin's porthole.
"Ge-ez!" cried Rhiannon. "Why'd you do that?"
[Illustration: _"Why'd you do that?" cried Rhiannon._]
"Didn't you see?" Karrin snapped. "It was a Rebel boat! Janus must have
been a spy!"
"But there was a Patrol Nova on--"
"Rhiannon--you've done a magnificent job!" Karrin clapped a hand on the
giant's arm and tightened it emotionally. He slipped the safety on his
pocketed atom pistol with the other hand. "That wasn't a Nova--that was
the Rebel Tetra!"
Rhiannon looked up at him, his forehead plowed over with thought; then
gradually a wide grin spread his lips. "We done it, didn't we?"
"We sure did."
Karrin's face was flattened at the cheeks. How the Patrol had known
of this meeting he would never know, short of torturing each of his
"cooperative men." Janus was gone. The briefcase was gone. The real
Rebel boat was probably bright drifting dust somewhere between here and
Llarn's moon. Karrin shivered.
Would the Patrol have his office covered? Had they known _whom_ they
were trapping? Or had the tip-off not mentioned names?
"One way to find out."